A Justice Department prosecutor was fired after saying he would struggle to take on a criminal case against former FBI Director James Comey alongside his other responsibilities, according to multiple media reports.
Robert K. McBride had only worked in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia for a few months when he was let go after expressing his hesitancy to personally push forward with the prosecution, according to reports by MS Now and the New York Times, which each cited anonymous sources familiar with the matter.
The Justice Department didn't immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for comment.
Comey's case was dismissed in November, after a federal judge ruled that the prosecutor who secured charges against the former FBI director, Lindsey Halligan, was serving unlawfully. The Justice Department has appealed that decision.
Halligan sought the charges, which alleged that Comey lied to Congress and obstructed a congressional proceeding. They came after Trump on social media last year called for Comey to be prosecuted. The move also follows Comey's longtime criticism of Trump, since the president fired him in 2017 as head of the FBI, which was investigating possible contacts between the 2016 Trump campaign and the Russian government.
